296 Bogota'. 



measures, which, although they may answer 

 the temporary convenience, cannot fail to 

 produce evil results. Each individual fears 

 that himself may be the next object for 

 the government to select, and the distrust 

 becomes more extensive and more alarming. 

 Amongst many other ills, this measure of 

 coercion causes universal stagnation of trade. 

 From such a step a government should 

 always refrain, for the maxim of honesty 

 is the best policy" is equally applicable to 

 a state as to an individual. An arbitrary 

 act of seizing on the property of any one 

 soon flies through a country, and each man 

 immediately endeavours to secure his capi- 

 tal from the grasp of such a government, and 

 being unwilling to employ it in traffic, all 

 trade is paralyzed, and the government loses 

 in detail a hundred-fold by such a breach of 

 good faith. On such occasions as these, 

 fortunate are the persons, if dependent on the 

 government for support, who are stationed 



